The present disclosure relates to a banknote handling apparatus for handling banknotes each having a unique code, and a method for managing the banknotes.
Japanese Patent Publication No. H04-37983 discloses a banknote depositing machine used in financial institutions. The banknote depositing machine includes stacking storage units in which banknotes are stored in a stacked state. In a depositing transaction, the banknote depositing machine sequentially reads and stores serial numbers of the deposited banknotes, and stores the banknotes in different storage units according to their denominations. Thus, the banknotes are managed based on the serial numbers. For example, when the depositing transaction is canceled, and the deposited banknotes are returned (hereinafter this process may be referred to as a returning process), the serial numbers of the banknotes fed from the storage units are read and checked against the serial numbers stored during the depositing transaction. Thus, only the banknotes deposited in the depositing transaction can be returned.
In storing the banknotes in the stacking storage unit, the order of the stored banknotes may change. For example, US 2009/0229947 discloses a banknote depositing machine which is configured in view of the change of the order of the banknotes. The banknote depositing machine includes a stacking escrow unit, and a plurality of storage units for storing the banknotes according to their denominations. In a depositing transaction, the serial numbers of the banknotes are sequentially read and stored in association with denomination etc., and the banknotes are temporarily stored in the stacking escrow unit. Then, the serial numbers of the banknotes fed from the escrow unit are read again, and checked against the stored serial numbers. Thus, even when the order of the banknotes has changed in storing the banknotes in the stacking escrow unit, the banknotes fed from the escrow unit can be stored in the correct storage units corresponding to their denominations.